Welcome

Welcome to the POZ Community Forums, a round-the-clock discussion area for people with HIV/AIDS, their friends/family/caregivers, and
others concerned about HIV/AIDS. Click on the links below to browse our various forums; scroll down for a glance at the most recent posts; or join in the
conversation yourself by registering on the left side of this page.

Privacy Warning: Please realize that these forums are open to all, and are fully searchable via Google and other search engines. If you are HIV positive
and disclose this in our forums, then it is almost the same thing as telling the whole world (or at least the World Wide Web). If this concerns you, then do not use a
username or avatar that are self-identifying in any way. We do not allow the deletion of anything you post in these forums, so think before you post.

The information shared in these forums, by moderators and members, is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between an individual and his/her own
physician.

All members of these forums are, by default, not considered to be licensed medical providers. If otherwise, users must clearly define themselves as such.

Forums members must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Posting guidelines, including time-out and banning policies, have been established by the moderators
of these forums. Click here for “Am I Infected?” posting guidelines. Click here for posting guidelines pertaining to all other POZ community forums.

We ask all forums members to provide references for health/medical/scientific information they provide, when it is not a personal experience being discussed. Please
provide hyperlinks with full URLs or full citations of published works not available via the Internet. Additionally, all forums members must post information which are
true and correct to their knowledge.

Author
Topic: Determining exposure date (Read 3801 times)

I know it's not worth spending too much time on, but I am agonizing over my exposure date and would like some advice.

Is it possible to seroconvert and test positive in within two weeks? I literally had blood drawn two weeks to the day after my suspected exposure, but I'm unclear if that is enough time to produce a positive ELISA and Western Blot result. Both tests came back positive, with ALL proteins positive on the WB.

While my acute symptoms were somewhat present after the suspected exposure, I also had other symptoms two weeks prior (a severely inflamed neck lymph node, for example).

Again, I know it's not worth obsessing over, but it is really making me retrace what few risky steps I took, and if I may be missing something a few weeks/months earlier.

The average time to seroconversion is 22 days. Most who are infected will test positive by 6 weeks. For various reasons a small number will take longer and that is why we follow the CDC recommendation to test at 3 months for a conclusive negative result .

Ok, thanks. I'm just curious to know if it's possible to test poz as I have within 14 days of exposure.

I'm an analytical person, and knowing how things happened and how they work are part of my mental DNA.

Welcome to the forum, glad you found us . I can understand wondering when and how you were infected . I was relieved to hear it was curiosity that drives you because some times when people ask that question after testing HIV POZ they do so trying to figure out who to blame, as in not take responsibility for their own infection .

Some people never experience any symptoms of seroconversion while others can have a rough go of it . A person may experience acute phase or primary phase of HIV infection after two weeks to three months after the infection.

Naxos, it would be unusual, but not impossible to test positive so quickly, particularly on the WB. At two weeks, most people would still be either testing antibody negative, or indeterminate where not enough bands are present to show a firm positive result.

It's more likely you were infected sometime before the date you have in mind. As Jeff said, many people never notice their seroconversion so your symptoms are pretty much meaningless in this regard.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts